Rare Toy Info collection information

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 It's been some time since a proper update on this site, there is a reason for it aside from neglect.

Beastformers: Takara "Gumball Beasts"

There's been a lot of speculation about certain aspects of the Japanese Beastformers toy line from Takara. I don't know if any part of the line has had more discussion about what was produced than the vending sales products. These toys nicknamed "gumball beasts" due to their method of distribution were completely exclusive to Japan. These vending sales toys came in two styles, "Real Type" regular beast sculpts and "Deformed" style designs. The deformed type beasts were original designs to Takara, Japan and sold nowhere else. The regular sculpt vending beasts were the same molds used in Hasbro's Battle Beasts lines outside Japan. These regular beasts came in two ways, colored, or in a creamy off-white color.

There is no indication as to how many beasts were inserted into bubbles for the vending machines. Catalogs included with the toys had originally stated that 15 types of regular beast figures were produced. The issue that has plagued the Beastformers collectors has been this initial catalog. It states one thing, then says that what they show may not be correct. The dispute that is most often brought up is about the white colored Beasts. Being the much more valued toys in the vending line, it's stands to reason that people want to know for fact what was released. That first catalog doesn't do anything but confuse.

*Note: Real type vending beasts do not come with weapons.

Thankfully, Takara issued a second catalog with their white vending beasts later on. This catalog not only shows the line of beasts produced in white, but why they were produced in that color. The whole gimmick behind the white beasts is that you are supposed to color them and create your own Beastformers warrior. This wasn't a new concept in toys when Takara issued these figures. Bandai had offered monthly prizes to kids for some of their toys using the same paint-it-yourself gimmick. Takara was even using the same idea in their Transformers line right about the same time. So here we have a look at the actual official list of Takara's white vending machine Beastformers figures.

White Leo
Big Serow
Flykick
Goldar
Battle Bear
Bonga
Beafox
Yellow Giraffe
Aligatoron
Killer Fish
Devilbat
Black Turtle

Battle Beasts: Hasbro Prototypes

When I first saw the character art that adorned the Japanese Beastformers cards and the collectors poster (by mail away or included with the Burstsun Special set) I wondered why some of the art was so drastically different than the toys. Why was Minor Mole orange and black? He already had two other versions released, what's the deal with this drawing? Just an artist's mistake? Nope, it turns out it was in fact the original Hasbro color design for that character. And he wasn't the only one who would get changed before the toy was released. Thanks to a Toy Fair catalog I found a great 2 page spread showing the entire figure assortment of the Battle Beasts in their earliest form. Sadly, only 5 were really any different, and one of those, Cobrander was just a minor color highlight. But four were very different, and quite cool.



First up, Miner Mole, who seems to carry the most drastic change. Not only is his fur black where it is now purple, but here he has orange armor, which is nothing at all like the black and purple his toy featured. The Mole is my favorite of these proto-beasts. Next is Tanglin' Pangolin who is kind of a boring one. His armor was changed from the early black to that awful peach the toy has. And his skin was really darkened up. Maybe sporting the simplest change, we have Torrential Tapir. Instead of being white skinned, the original had him with a black skin color. Either way I think he looks cool. This version would have made a cooler villain choice. Pew-trid Skunk rounds out the the batch with a very interesting switch. His colors were reversed before production. I like the prototype much better the the final toy.

Battle Beasts: Beastformers Striped Carp

The Japanese extension of the Battle Beasts line, Beastformers, contained a good deal of unique products. The limited edition prize toy Striped Carp is one of them. It's part of a category of ultra rare items from the Beastformers line. It also falls in the category of the ugliest Beasts ever made.



When I first found out about this figure, a friend and I were toy hunting in Japan. We came upon a unopened display box of Beastformers. This "Punch Box" display was part of a Takara campaign for the line. Kids would buy a chance to punch a hole into the top of the display and get the prize inside. Most of the box was filled with your everyday Beastformers. Lucky children could come away with special much rarer toys. The chances of getting a Striped Crap should have been 1 per box. However, some boxes have been found with no Striped Craps included. Since there's little in the ways of proving that a box was shipped without the special item 23 years later, it could be that some boxes had them removed.

When this discovery hit the net, it sparked a lot of interest among the Battle Beasts community. Not all of it gushing love and adoration. One collector mentioned that it looked like a Clear Carp figure that a factory worker mistakenly dripped soy sauce over. Most collectors wanted the figure however and it became a top ranked figure on their want lists. To this day it still ranks high in terms of rarity.